What is Newsweek and why do we care that one of its owners might be a crazy person?

Well, it’s what’s known as a “magazine,” which is how people used to get gossip, recipes and cat-fancying advice. After shedding money and readers and advertisers for years, it was recently purchased by a company called “IBT Media,” which we assume is an abbreviation for “Irritable Bowel Times.” The new owners are Jonathan Davis, who’s 31, and Etienne Uzac, 30.

But here’s the big problem: about a year ago, Davis praised an op-ed about the benefits of pray-away-the-gay camps. So, that’s not awesome.

And his nonpology is even worse. Davis says his ideas about homosexuality have “no bearing on my capacity here as the founder of the company. I’m not sure how it’s relevant. People believe all sorts of weird things. But from a professional capacity, it’s unrelated.”

Blerg, as they say. Of course it’s related! We are not sure if Davis really believes that a corporate owner’s ideology does not affect news coverage (in which case Newsweek is doomed), or if he’s playing all naïve in the hopes that this all blows over.

Newsweek, you may recall, made headlines a few years ago when it declared Obama to be America’s “first gay president,” oh brother. That was before the new owners took over, of course, so we’ll have to wait and see if they continue to offer such ludicrous headlines around LGBT issues. How will they cover “ex-gay” crackpots? Will reporters suddenly start treating Exodus and NARTH as through they are actually respectable organizations?

Also, Davis referred to insane ex-gay claims as “accurate,” which is an interesting choice of words. How would he know?

Meanwhile, Newsweek‘s still working on getting the hang of this whole “news” thing. After taking a two-year vacation from print, they relaunched a dead tree edition this year with a hot scoop about the founder of Bitcoin … that the subject of the story says is not at all accurate.

So the nutjobs have infiltrated what is still one of the larger selling political magazines in the nation.

Mar 31, 2014 at 4:37 pm · @Reply ·

tricky ricky

newsweek will probably be run along the same lines of the Washington Times, lying partisan hackery. the new owners are associated w/rev. moon

Mar 31, 2014 at 6:34 pm · @Reply ·

Mezaien

Obama, is the best thing ever happen to the USA.

Apr 1, 2014 at 12:10 am · @Reply ·

DuMaurier

I no longer subscribe to Newsweek, but I did when the “first gay president” issue came out, and to clarify: it was an obvious take on the “first black president” Toni Morrison quote about Clinton, and wasn’t meant negatively (as this article sort of implies) but headlined a very positive story about Obama’s commitment to equality.

Apr 1, 2014 at 12:25 pm · @Reply ·

a new member

NEWSFLASH; Newsweek stopped printing last year. It is only
some online drivel now.

Apr 1, 2014 at 2:37 pm · @Reply ·

DonW

@a new member: Read the last line of the story. The new owners are re-launching the print edition.

Even the “old” Newsweek ran some incredibly offensive coverage of “ex-gay” bullshit. I well remember their cover in the early ’90s of ex-gay poster boy John (“Candi”) Paulk and his ex-lesbian “wife.” “Gay for Life?” the headline asked. Well, now that John has splashed fabulously back In The Life, we have the answer to that.